Cultural phenomena are extraordinarily stable and can remain more or less unchanged for thousands of years inspite of political ruptures. In Jan Assmann's book "Ma'at", Ancient Egypt forms the starting point for various considerations. "Ma'at" is the key term of Ancient Egyptian thought and means "truth, justice, world order". On the basis of this term Jan Assmann traces ways of thinking in ancient Egypt and finds the first origin of state-organized forms of human coexistence.